These gorgeous desserts make breakups just a little sweeter

Breakups are *never* fun, but one designer is trying to make them a little more sweet in the most lovely (and tasty) way.

Isabella Giancarlo, 23, is a designer and strategist in Brooklyn, New York that is dedicating her time to transforming those painful “it’s not you, it’s me” breakup phrases into beautiful works of dessert art.

“For me, a loss of appetite typically accompanies the end of a relationship,” Isabella told HelloGiggles. “This is always particularly distressing, as I’m a voracious eater and cook. After a breakup last spring, seven words sat me that I couldn’t shake. I thought about ways to reclaim that phrase. . . how could I sweeten words that initially took my appetite away?”

So Isabella started asking her friends for their own heartbreak quotes, and thus began the photo series (and Instagram account) Eat Your Heart Out. “[I] felt those familiar pangs,” Isabella told us. “You didn’t need to understand the intricacies of a relationship to feel the weight of those final words.”

It turned out that Isabella wasn’t the only one that resonated with those parting phrases. Eat Your Heart Out has swept the Internet, being featured by various major outlets, the Instagram account garnering over 3,000 followers in two weeks. “The response has been so positive,” Isabella explained to HG. “It’s been humbling to have people share their vulnerable parts, and it has made the process feel even more intimate and collaborative.”

Currently, Isabella is planning to show prints in a gallery in New York, but with enough requests, she plans to sell them online as well. And *no*, they’re not meant as a way to make breaking up with someone sweeter! “I hope no one has used one of my desserts to break up with someone,” Isabella told us. “Instead of inspiring heartbreak, I hope they playfully foster solidarity around breakups.”

Isabella has created quite a few of these desserts, but her absolute favorite one expresses a simple “I am so sorry” on a cherry blackberry almond torte:

Isabella also has some “gut-wrenching” desserts that will be coming out on Instagram this week, and she’s hoping to showcase her project in more galleries and even turn it into a book.

“I hope the project says: Go ahead. Gorge. Engage with the uncomfortable, sticky feelings of a broken heart that are so often dismissed as self-indulgent,” she told us. “Devour and reclaim the words that caused you pain.”